Dicing with Destiny

Games Britannia

Part One: "Dicing with Destiny"
Presented by Benjamin Woolley. Duration: 59 minutes.
First broadcast on BBC4 in December 2009 as part of the Game On season.


The Stanway Game [02:15]

At a gravel quarry in Stanway, just outside Colchester, in 1996, archaeologists began excavating five enclosures dating from the iron age, when Britain was under Roman rule. The enclosures had been identified from aerial photography and the quarry company allowed archaeologists to undertake the excavations ahead of the advancing quarry line.

The enclosures were burial sites for indigenous British people (they were not Roman graves) dating from about 43AD. One of the burial sites, subsequently referred to as “The Doctor’s Grave” contained various artefacts, including a set of diving rods, rings, a set of surgical instruments and a board game, set out as if a game was in progress, had also been placed in the doctor’s grave (other gaming pieces were found in the other enclosures, notably “The Warrior’s Grave”)

The game board is the oldest complete gaming board found in Britain. The rules are not known. What is known is that the game consists of a board (the excavated board had rotted, but enough remained, including fragments of wood, metal corner pieces and hinges, for a facsimile to be created) and a set of blue glass pieces and white glass pieces, set up on opposite sides of the board.
 
Woolley consults Irving Finkel, curator of games at the British Museum. Finkel suggests the game is a strategy game, probably a British game, dating from before the Roman invasion.

Woolley consults Mike Pitts, an archaeologist at Colchester Castle & Museum, to ask if there are any clues as to the identity of the owner of the game. Pitts notes that the game board may be deemed a highly significant object because the cremated remains of the grave’s occupant had been set out on the board, which was arranged as for a game, with the other objects on or around the board. Pitts suggests the occupant of the grave may have had divinatory powers and was “probably a Druid.” The game, therefore, suggests Woolley, may have been used for divination (ie prophecy).


Alea Evangelii [11:17]


Aethelstan, C10th King of Britain (and grandson of King Alfred) is mentioned in an illuminated manuscript as having a particular game in his court: alea evangelii (game of the evangelists). The manuscript, a copy of the gospels, also includes a diagram of the board game.

Woolley attempts to play the board game with mediaevalist David Howlett (note that they play with the pieces on the lines rather than in the spaces). Alea Evangelii is a member of the tafl group of games: it is an asymmetric game; there are twice as many attacking pieces as there are defending pieces. The object of the game for the defending side is for the king to “escape” to the edge or to the corner of the board, while the attacking side seeks to capture the king by flanking him between two pieces.

Alea Evangelii is a complex version of tablut. The board is an 18 x 18 grid and there are 72 pieces. In this version, the four corners represent the four evangelists, and there are various correspondences between the positions of the pieces on the board and biblical scripture.

Libros de los juegos [book of games] [18:40]

 Chess, draughts and backgammon began to be played by the end of C13th. They are recorded in a late thirteenth century manuscript, Libros de los joegos, compiled by the Spanish king, Alfonso X. Some of the games described in the book are eastern in origin.

A parable in the book tells of an Indian king and three wise men who are considering the nature of things and whether luck or wit is most important in shaping one’s life. The wise men refer to games in answering the king:

• The first wise man refers to games of chance: because everything in the universe is pre-ordained, we should put our trust in luck. This position might be understood as fatalism.
• The second wise man referred to games of skill, such as chess. Our fortune depends on our wit. This position refers to free will.
• The third said that the perfect game was a combination of luck and skill, because it was a representation of life itself. The example of this perfect combination is backgammon.

Woolley finds many games boards scratched into cloisters and even tombs in medieval cathedrals. One of the most popular games was Nine Men’s Morris.

Nine Men’s Morris [22:00]

Nine Men’s Morris is a form of noughts and crosses: the aim is to get three pieces in a row (which allows the player to remove an opponent’s piece).

Hazard [27:00]

Hazard may have been brought to Europe by returning crusaders in C14th. It is a gambling game, played with dice. It is telling that the name of this game is now the word used for danger of any kind.

• Calls 5
• Throws 6+4
• 10 is your chance
• 5 is your main

Throwing dice was frowned upon by the medieval church. The outcome of the dice determines the will of god – and the chance of winning a few coins is too trivial a matter to justify the invocation of god’s favour.


Faro [32:00]

A card game, popular amongst the aristocracy and upper classes in the C18th, saw many a ruin as fortunes were lost on the faro table.

An 1823 murder trial, involving James Thurtell (the son of the mayor of Norwich) who was convicted and hanged for killing a man over a gambling debt, led to The Gaming Act (1845). The case aroused a lot of interest in the press; hundreds of thousands of pamphlets were sold and several plays were put on, telling the story as a warning of the evils of gambling.

The Royal Game of Goose [38:00]

Popular Victorian board game based on theme of virtue. The game used a spinner rather than sinful dice. Board of 63 squares.

Snakes and Ladders [43:45]

Derived from, or inspired by, gyan chapoor, the Hindi game of knowledge. The Indian game sets out a quest, from nothingness to enlightenment. Similarly, the Indian game of Pachisi was simplified as ludo. Both Ludo and Snakes & Ladders were popular mass-produced games in C19th.

Chess [50:00]

Originated in India, ca. C8th

Howard Staunton, after whom the most familiar-shaped pieces are named, standardised the pieces and the rules for the first international chess tournament which was part of The Great Exhibition in 1851. Prior to this, chess had been played around the world for a thousand years with variations in both rules and pieces.